Project

Evaluation of the guideline for "Funding research and teaching in the field of social policy"

The evaluation is intended to assess the funding programme "Funding research and teaching in the field of social policy" with regard to its effects against the background of the main goal of strengthening social policy research in Germany. The key question is "whether and how funding was able to contribute to generating critical knowledge about social policy issues, and to retaining or expanding structures in social policy research in Germany".

The German Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs (BMAS) commissioned the Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research ISI and the Centre for Social Innovations (ZSI) with evaluating the program "Funding research and teaching in the field of social policy". The evaluation addresses the question to what extent funding was able to contribute to generating relevant knowledge about social policy issues and to retaining or expanding structures in social policy research in Germany. The evaluation, which began in August 2021 and will finish in August 2022, examines the program’s design and the effects of funding on those funded and their team members, on the institutions and networks of social policy research, and on the research landscape in Germany as a whole. The evaluation follows an I-O-O-I (Inputs, Outputs, Outcomes and Impacts) model, which is context-sensitive and adapted to the individual funding instruments. To do so, different methods are triangulated and the perspectives and experiences of different actors are documented. 

The evaluation is based on a combination of existing quantitative and qualitative, reactive and non-reactive methods. Specifically, these are: literature and document analyses, analysis of funding data, interviews, focus groups, online survey of employees, web crawling and funding environment analysis.

Duration

8.2021-8.2022

Clients

Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs

Partners

ZSI (Centre for Social Innovation), Vienna, Austria